YouBama and the citizen-generated campaign

I'm loving Google Reader these days. I can consume blog posts, podcasts and video much more quickly and easily than ever before -- and that makes me happy. This past week, I've been able to enjoy sharing and receiving shared items with friends who are also rocking Reader within the interface. I can see the appeal of Google's approach to social networking and bookmarking.

Your email address book is effectively your network.

Your shared bookmarks become a living stream of of your online consciousness.

Facebook may aspire to be the Web's operating system -- and the recent releases of Facebook apps into the Web at large is a major step in that direction -- but Google's communication and productivity apps are beginning to be linked in ways that reveal the wisdom of the crowds in new ways.

All that aside, I discovered YouBama today through my RSS feeds and TechCrunch's post... I'll be watching those feeds too now. Online video just gained has yet another outlet, one independent from the campaign and that just received an avalanche of coverage from Tech Crunch's coverage.

YouTube still dwarfs this site, of course, along with the rest of the MSM, but it's nonetheless noteworthy to see how much control the campaign's have lost over "the message" and how enabled we have all become in sharing our own opinions.

Democracy is going P2P -- I'm loving it.

Vote Different

I'm still woefully behind in posting here -- and for the few that are still checking the feed, I apologize -- but I did see something sufficiently provocative today to warrant a quick upload.

The blogosphere has been going a little batty (moonbatty, perhaps?) about a mashup of the iconic original 1984 Mac commercial and Hillary Clinton's online fireside chat. The video was made by an Obama supporter (shocking) and while I'm reticent to entirely endorse either candidate (I prefer Bill Richardson to both on a number of levels, frankly) the impact of this political ad/statement/art if undeniable.

I hope it's the first of many such mashups, on both sides.

YouTube = the new CSPAN?

Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine reports:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s blog — note how that rolls off the keyboard — has been putting up video of representatives floor speeches against the war. That’s fascinating enough but get how they are posting the video: via YouTube. Here is Pelosi’s own YouTube user page.

C-SPAN has been the place to get source information on video: watch and judge for yourself. Now YouTube can take over that role and not just for limited official events but for source video anywhere. [crossposted at PrezVid]

This really is quite extraordinary. I'm sure my friends are tired of me blathering on about the Craigslist generation or the YouTube election -- but here we are. We're more wired than ever before, with the Edwards campaign on Second Life and the first presidential commercial (thanks, Mitt -- we'll all stop "dithering now") popping up there for embedding nearly simultaneously with its entrance onto the broadcast airwaves. The fact that the Speaker of the House is posting speeches from the floor of the House of Representatives (or more likely, one of her aides) strikes me as a significant step towards transparency. In other words, YouTube is good for more than just macaca moments. Such engagement in new media might even grab the attention of those who have turned off and tuned out from network news and newspapers, nearly en masse. I hope so. There are so many important stories out there.

Chomsky vs Buckley debate from 1969

Part 1:


Part 2:


Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for the link. I like YouTube more and more each week.